Personal Narrative: My Journey With Social Anxiety

What does having social anxiety feel like? After doing quite extensive and lengthy exploration into the topic, I came to the understanding that it was something that was unique to each individual. Overall, living with anxiety was awful, and often accompanied by other mental illness, such as depression, anorexia, or even a few others combined. People who live this way often come to the understanding that not many people can interpret their actions and know that the things they do are because of their social anxiety. Not everyone who has anxiety can easily open up about their emotions or what they feel. This made it difficult to find anyone to interview, or even just talk to about their mental illness. I was unsure of who had it, as not many

Sites such as blogger, joyable, weebly, and many others allow people to write without limitations. On joyable, I came across a blog called “My Journey with Social Anxiety,” posted by Erica P. that tells a valuable message about living with social anxiety. She outlines her childhood life, and how growing into the woman she is today was difficult, simply because she faced a battle with social anxiety. She then goes on to speak of how she joins a program called joyable, and from here, she is able to conquer some her worst social anxieties. Some of the things that interrupted her daily living were included in her

If it takes longer than that, I usually just leave, if I can.” Even working can be a struggle, “I left my last job because there were too many triggers for my anxiety,” and sometimes she will even “duck into the bathroom or my cubical more quickly than normal if [she] see[s] someone turn a corner walking my way, to avoid small talk.” Making or taking phone calls can be a challenge, unless it is with immediate family. Those with very strong and outspoken ideas are nerve-wracking, and people of authority can also make her nervous. If she was able to turn her brain of, Erica says she would like to sometimes. Being one-on-one with someone can be more nerve-wracking than being in a group, because all of the attention is on a one-to-one base, and there is a pressure to be better, to be “awesome.” However, these all were able to be overcome, and Erica would feel less pressure in these